Lecture IV. Verbs

1. Verbal categories. Verb conjugation. Non-finite forms.

2. Strong verbs.

3. Weak verbs.

4. Suppletive verbs. Anomalous verbs. Preterite-present verbs.

5. The problem of aspect, voice and analytical forms.

1. OE verb had fewer grammatical categories than NE verb. (a) The verb-predicate agreed with the subject by means of two grammatical categories: the number and the person. (b) The category of tense was represented by the present and the preterite. No future forms existed, (c) The category of mood consisted of the indicative, the subjunctive and the imperative. Tenses were synthetic: the present and the preterite. The latter referred to the past without differentiating between prior and non-prior actions: And þaes
ofer astron ʒ efōr Alþerēd cyning and hē riscode V(fif) ʒeаr. The present referred the action to any period of time except the past. The present regularly denoted a future action: ic nāt hwaenne mīne daʒas āʒāne bēoþ.

Moods were synthetic: OE subjunctive was often used in
the indirect speech to describe events of which the speaker
was not certain: hē saede... þaet þaet land sīe swīþe lаnʒ.

Non-finite forms included (a) the infinitive which was of two kinds - uninflected nominative (e.g. helpan) and inflected dative (e.g. tō helpenne) and (b)the participle.

Participle I ending in -ende/-ande (e.g. lufiende "loving")
and participle II, e.g. (ʒe)lufod "loved", (ʒe) risen "risen". Participle II of transitive verbs had passive meaning. Participles were declined as adjectives.
The conjugation of the OE weak verbs

Table 6

Tense P r e s e n t Preterite

Mood Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Indicative Subjunct.

Singular ic cēpe, telle -"- - cēpte, tealde -"-

Þu cēpst, tellest cēpe, telle cēp, tell cēptest, te- cēpte, aldest tealde

hē hēo cepþ, telleþ -"- - cēpte, tealde -"- hit

Plural wē ʒē cēpaþ, cēpen, cēpaþ, cēpton, cēpten, tellaþ tellen tellaþ tealdon tealden hīe

Participle I: cepēnde, tellēnde. Participle II: (ʒe)-cēped, ʒe-teald. Infinitive: cēpan, tellan.

The conjugation of the OE strong verbs

Table 7

Tense P r e s e n t Preterite

Mood Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Indicative Subjunct.

Singular ic helpe, binde -"- - healp, band -"-

Þu hilpst, helpe, binde help, bind hulpe, bunde hulpe, bintst bunde  

hē hēo hilpþ bint -"- - healp, band -"- hit

Plural wē ʒē helpaþ, helpen, helpaþ, hulpon, hulpen, bindaþ binden bindaþ bundon bunden hīe

Participle I: helponde, Participle II: (ʒe)-holpen

bindende (ʒe)-bunden

Infinitive: helpan Dative Infinitive: tō helpanne

bindan tō bindanne

2. There were over 300 strong verbs in OE which were subdivided into 7 classes. 1 through 5 class had ab-laut or qualitative gradation of the root vowel corresponding to IE e - о - zero:

Gem. i- a - zero.

Note: gradation іs a spontaneous vowel change that is not conditioned by any surrounding phonemes.

Cf. Russ. беру - брать e - zero

беру - сбор e – о

лежу - ложе e – о

гоню – гнать о – zero

Classes of strong verbs

Table 8

Infinitive Preterite Preterite Participle II Singular Plural

i a ʒ ʒ

1. wrītan wrāt writon writen "write" Goth. ii ai i i i (i-a-z-z) i-root extension

2. cēosan cēas curon coren "choose" Goth. iu au u u u-(i-a-z-z) o/u- variant of one phoneme (s-r: Verner’s law) u-root extension

3. bīndan band bundon bunden "bind" helpan healp hulpon holpen "help" Goth. hilpan halp Combination "bnd" and "hlp" are impossible, so they develop "u/o" e>ea before l+consonant sonorant + consonant (breaking) is root - extension

4. beran baer bāēron boren "bear" stelan stael stāēlon stolen "steal" Goth. stilan stal stēlum stulans ae-āē-intrusion of o/u is explained as quantitative ab-laut in class 3; sonorant Cf. lege-legi (Perfect) or ‘h’ is root- exten- in Latin. sion

5. tredan traed trāēdon treden "tread" ʒiefan ʒeaf ʒēafon ʒiefen "give" (ʒie- palatalisation) Goth. giban gaf gēbum gibans e/ie-influence of the Infinitive; ae-āē explained as any consonant –non-sonant is in class 4 root-extension

6. faran fōr fōron faren "go" Germanic quantitative gradation a – ō – ō – a, corresponding to indo-European quantitative gradation o - ō - ō – o.

7. hātan hēt hēton hāten "call" (hēht) (hēhton) lātan lēt lēton lāten "let" Goth. lētan lailōt lailōtum lētans Some verbs had traces of IE reduplication (doubling of the initial syllable or root). Other verbs had never had any reduplication. blāwan blēow blēowon blāwen

3. In all Germanic languages there were three classes of weak verbs (Gothic had four classes) that formed their Preterite with the help of dental suffixes. The division into classes was due to stem-building suffixes: e.g. in Gothic

1. hausjan -j- stem-suffix "hear" hausida

2. lufōjan. -ō- stem-suffix "love" lufōda

3. haban -ai- stem-suffix "have" hab ai da

4. fullnan -n-(o)-stem-suffix "full" fullnōda

In 0E the first class underwent і-mutation.

e.g. *dōmjan - dēman

The first class is subdivided into regular and irregular
verbs.

1. Regular verbs. Verbs with the long root-vowel dropped -i-/-j- indiscriminately of the preceding stem-consonant which did not lengthen, e.g.:

dēman - "judge" - dēmde - dēmed
hīeran - "hear" - hīerde - hīerd

Verbs with the short root-vowel accompanied by -r- retained -i-/-j- in the infinitive and present while -r- did not double, e.g.: styrian - "stir" - styrede - styred. Verbs with the short root-vowel accompanied by any consonant but
-r- dropped -i-/-j- while the consonant doubled, e.g. trymman - "strengthen" - trymede - trymed.

2. Irregular verbs were characterised by the fact that i-mutation took place in the infinitive and present forms only. The -i-/-j- stem-suffix did not exist in other forms.

sellan - "sell" - sealde - seald

wyrcan - "work" - worhte - worht

þencan - "think" - þohte - þoht

tāēcan - "teach" - tāhte - tāht

byc ʒan - "buy" - bohte - boht

sēcan - "seek" - sōhte - sōht

OE second class had -o- stem-suffix in the preterite forms and participle II.

macjan - "make" - macode - macod

lufjan - "love" - lufode - lufod

hopjan - "hope" - hopode - hopod

Gothic infinitive suffix -ojan altered in OE into -jan. In the 3-d class Gothic stem-suffix -ai- disappeared; after a long root vowel consonants doubled.

habban - "have" - haefde - haefd

libban - "live" - lifde - loifd

sесʒаn - "say" - saeʒde - saeʒ

(sāēde) - (sāēd)

frēoʒan - "free" - frēode - frēod

Many verbs of class 3 entered class I and 2.

Among weak verbs there are many causative formations
which come from preterite singular of strong verbs, e.g.:

5 class: licʒan - laeʒ - “to lie”

Weak 1 class: laeʒjan –“to lay”

1 class: rīsen – rās – “to rise”

Weak 1 class: rasjan – “to raise”

5 class: sitan – saet – “to sit”

Weak 1 class: saetjan – “to set”

4. Preterite-present verbs constitute a separate group of 12 verbs (see conjugation of the verb witan "know").

Table 9

Tense	Present	Preterite
Mood	Indicative	Subjunctive	Imperative	Indicative	Subjunctive
Singular
1 p.	wāt	wite	-	wisse wiste	wisse wiste
2 p.	wāst	"-"	wite	wistest	"-"
3 p.	wāt	"-"	-	wisse wiste	"-"
Pural	witon	witen	witaþ	wisson wiston	wissen wisten

Participle I: witende

Participle II: witen

Their present forms are built along the lines of preterite of
strong verbs. Their preterite forms are those of weak verbs.
The preterite developed from the former IE forms of aspect.
When aspect changed into tense, the result of an action proved to be more important with the verbs of a special semantic group. So the forms of the preterite came to denote present (cf. Russian узнал - узнаю, научился - могу, приобрёл – имею).

Inf. NE Pres. sing. Pres. pl. Pret. sing. Pret. pl. Part. II

Āgan owe ought āg āgon āhte āhton āgen cunnan can could can cunnon cuþe cuþon cunnan durran dare dear durron dorste dorston - maʒan may might maeʒ maʒon meahte meahton - mōtan must mot mōton mōste mōston - sculan shall sceal sculon scolde scoldon -

It іs impossible in Modern English to say “he cans”, “shalls” for those are preterite forms with present meaning. The Modern English ought and must come from OE preterite.

Suppletive verbs build tense forms from different roots,
i.e., the system is based on the principle of suppletivity, e.g. “beon, wesan” builds its forms from three roots -be-, -wes-, es-

Table 10

Tense P r e s e n t Preterite
Mood	Indicative	Subjunctive	Imperative	Indicative	Subjunctive
Singular
1 p.	eom, bēom	sie, beo	-	waes	"-"
2 p.	eart, bist	"-"	wes, beo	wāēre	wāēre
3 p.	is, biþ	"-"	-	waes	"-"
Plural
	sint, beoþ	sien, bēon	wesaþ, beoþ	wāēron	wāēren

Participle I: wesende

bēonde

Suppletive verbs are characteristic of every IE language, e.g.

L. sum – fui

Russ. eсть – быть

Germ. sein – bin – war

These roots are supposed to have had various original meanings. Greek phy-, corresponding to German be-, Latin fu-, Russian бы means "grow" (Cf. Gr. physis "nature").

One more suppletive verb is OE ʒān “go” (Cf. Goth. gaggan - iddja; Russ. идти – шел. Preterite ind. ēode (I/he) "went".

Two OE verbs have some irregularities in building their forms. These are dōn "do" and willan "will". They have certain alterations of the root vowel in the preterite forms (Cf. Mod. E. do - did - done will - would).

The conjugation of the OE verbs dōn and willan

Table 11

Tense P r e s e n t Preterite
Mood	Indicative	Subjunctive	Imperative	Indicative	Subjunctive
Singular
1 p.	dō wille	"-"	-	dyde wolde	"-"
2 p.	dēst, willt	dō wille	do	dydest woldest	dyde wolde
3 p.	dēth wille	"-"	-	dyde wolde	"-"
Plural
	dōþ, willaþ	dōn willen	dōþ	dydon woldon	dyden wolden

Participle I: dōnde

willende; ne+wille nylle; ne+wolde nolde

Participle II: (ʒe) dōn

5. In OE there were two synthetic tenses, the present and the preterite. The future was expressed by present forms. (a). Analytical future was at its beginning. The initial meaning of the verbs willan "wish" and scullan "to be bound to" was weakening, and they began to be indicating future actions, e.g.: nū wylle wē ymbe Europe tellan.

(b). In OE there were combinations of the type "habban + participle II", e.g.: Hīe haefdon hīer cyninʒ ʒecorenne. Still there is no perfect aspect, though some priority is meant. Nevertheless the individual meaning of the participle is quite distinct. The combinations should be considered free.

(c). The category of voice іs also a matter of dispute, for it іs closely linked up with the рroblem of analytical verb-forms in OE. In OE there were combinations of "beon/wesan; weorthan + participle II", e.g. And þaer wāēron ofslaeʒene niʒon eorlas. Each member of the combination has its own ending of the plural which proves their independence (Compound nominal predicate), e.g.: hē wearþ ofslaeʒen where a change of state іs meant. Such combinations gradually acquired the features of analytical forms which they become in ME.

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